THE VILLAGE : IN AND ABOUT IT 155 



of which his father had been Regent. He had 

 there two English nurses, Mrs. Page and Mrs. 

 Ford, names that gave George IV. the cue for a 

 jocular remark, " The Merry Wives of Windsor." 

 It was after King William's death, when Ernest 

 succeeded to Hanover, that the Cambridge 

 family came back to live at Kew, of which their 

 eldest son is found remarking in Olendorffian 

 style, " The houses we occupy are very bad, but 

 the place itself is very cheerful." It is not 

 recorded of him that he interfered with the 

 Church service, though his everyday language 

 was criticised as too much borrowed from its 

 comminatory forms. In 1866, his sister, the 

 Princess Mary of Cambridge, was married at 

 Kew Church to the Duke of Teck, to whom 

 was given the White Lodge in Richmond Park, 

 whence came a bride for our present Prince of 

 Wales. 



The last quasi-royal function at Kew was 

 the marriage in 1899 of the Princess Marie, 

 grandchild of the Dowager Grand Duchess of 

 Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who, as daughter of the 

 former Duke of Cambridge, is the sole surviving 

 grand-daughter of George III. At the parish 

 church, in presence of the Prince of Wales and 



